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Continued from page 2

Shakhtar Donetsk v Borussia Dortmund

Valencia v Paris Saint-Germain

Galatasaray v Schalke

Porto v Málaga

First legs to be played 12/13/19/20 February 2013; second legs to be played 5/6/12/13 March 2013

Next summer’s Confederation Cup draw is made. Group A has hosts Brazil, Mexico, Italy and Japan. Group B has Spain, Uruguay, Tahiti and the African Champions to be decided in early 2013.

The holiday breaks finds Barcelona at the top of La Liga with 49 points followed by Atletico Madrid 40, Real Madrid 33 and Malaga on 31.

Lionel Messi (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Lionel Messi concludes 2012 with his 91st goal of the calendar year. There is some dispute as to whether it constitutes a world record or not but all agree that it is a phenomenal performance. Messi has already scored 26 goals in the first 17 games of this league season.

Juventus leads in Serie A after 18 games with 44 points. Lazio are next on 36, followed by Inter 35 and Fiorentina 35.

Bayern Munich are strolling to the Bundesliga tile having opened a nine point gap on Bayer Leverkusen at the half-way stage.

France has an interesting race with PSG, Lyon and

Marseille all tied with 38 points.

Newcastle leads three times at Old Trafford on Boxing Day but still loses 4-3 to Manchester United. Four days later three times Newcastle pegs back a one goal Arsenal lead but the Gunners go on to win 7-3 with Walcott scoring a hat-trick.

Boxing Day woes for Manchester City as an Adam Johnson goal for Sunderland decides the game.

The 2012 concludes with Arsenal scoring four times in the final 20 minutes to beat Newcastle 7-3 and the following day Chelsea wins 2-1 away Everton.

The first deal of the transfer window that opens January 1 appears to be Daniel Sturridge to Liverpool from Chelsea for $19M.